I have only one more day of driving before I hang up my school bus keys for the summer. Last year, I was as excited and delighted as I am now. But last year, after I backed my bus into its parking spot and turned off the ignition, I started to cry. Not because I was unhappy about leaving, but because I suddenly realized driving my bus was helping me stay connected to someone I lost the year before.
This year, however, I have a lot to look forward to since I’ll be traveling even further than I did last year when I went to Mississippi and Tennessee, where I did research for the book I’m writing, a follow up to my memoir Rude Awakening. This year I am flying to Europe to visit my son in Darmstadt, a city just south of Frankfurt. From there we are heading north to a quaint little town called Celle, where we will visit his wife’s mother, one of the loveliest women I’ve ever met.
I also intend to visit two of my favorite sites - Heidelberg and Lichtenstein. (Did you know that during World War II there was an agreement between the British and the Nazis, one in which the British agreed not to bomb Heidelberg and the Nazis agreed not to bomb Oxford?)
Whenever we’ve gone to Heidelberg in the past, we’ve parked the car and gone down a whole lot of steps, actually descending into the city. Last time we went, we had lunch in a tavern under a great big stained-glass dome that looked and felt like sitting beneath a Tiffany lampshade. In Lichtenstein, which is located at the top of a mountain, there is a beautiful old museum and a café from which you can look down and see the cars - which look like ants - as they move along the country road below.
Whenever we’ve gone to Heidelberg in the past, we’ve parked the car and gone down a whole lot of steps, actually descending into the city. Last time we went, we had lunch in a tavern under a great big stained-glass dome that looked and felt like sitting beneath a Tiffany lampshade. In Lichtenstein, which is located at the top of a mountain, there is a beautiful old museum and a café from which you can look down and see the cars - which look like ants - as they move along the country road below.
Then, while my son returns to work, my daughter and I will be traveling to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre, to walk along the Seine and to drink coffee on the Champs Elysees – a place I’ve read and dreamed about since I was a child. I am so excited!
My memoir, Dear Elvis, is available at amzn.to/2uPSFtE
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